I was lying in my bed earlier today and I was reading On the Road and suddenly, I looked at the wall in front of me and I saw the little life preserver thing that they had at the 8th Grade Dinner Dance. It's a piece of cardboard that has my name on it and it also says BMS (Brownstown Middle School) and 1998. And I was looking at it and I remember taking it off of the wall at the dance and I remember many moments from the dance, but I thought about it and it dawned on me. I don't remember buying the ticket for that dance.

How many moments of your life go forgotten? It's possible that they formed a part of who you are and they just slip from your mind. It made me very sad, thinking that when I'm 80 years old, I won't remember most of my life.

The Dinner Dance was a mixed blessing for me. I do remember that. I got dressed up, my mom fussed over me, and I got to hang out for a night with my friends. After the dance, we went to Olive Garden, all 20 of us, and that spawned the infamous "new Sprite" debacle. Then, after dinner, we went to Lindsey's house and stayed up until morning. Then we went into her kitchen and ate breakfast.

But as for the dance itself, I think my time would've been better spent at home, sleeping (although I think this about many activities). I remember standing in the middle of the dark gymnasium and seeing all the girls dancing with various boys and I remember feeling very lonely because I didn't think I'd ever have the courage to ask a boy to dance. I danced with Sarah, I remember that. Goo Goo Dolls, Iris, because in those days she loved the Goo Goo Dolls and that song was so overplayed. We spun around the dance floor, not really dancing with each other, just spinning and occasionally holding each other's arm for leverage. That was the only fun part of that dance.

I wonder if it's normal to live in the past as much as I do. But then again, whoever said I was normal?